Saturday, 20 October 2018

The Development of the IFA F9


American troops accepted the surrender of Chemnitz on 6 May 1945 bringing to an end the nightmare of the Second World War for Auto-Union. From the rubble, an assessment of what had survived commenced, and the results were not heartening. The Wanderer plant at Siegmar, and the Horch-Audi plants in Chemnitz, along with the corporate head office, had been seriously damaged by bombing. Only the DKW motorcycle and small engine plant at Zschopau had escaped unscathed. On top of this, the political situation was extremely precarious for while US troops had accepted the surrender of German forces, the state of Saxony fell within the Soviet occupation zone. Concerned to protect the interests of the company, the Auto-Union board convened an emergency meeting on 5 May and vested executive powers in a committee comprising Ludwig Hensel, Dr. Gerhard Muller, Dr. Kurt Richter, Walter Schmolla, and Dr. Hanns Schuler. In order to safeguard against the possible liquidation of the company, the executive committee agreed to disperse the company’s key personnel across the occupation zones. Managing director Dr Richard Bruhn and Director of Sales Dr Carl Hahn, would relocate to Bavaria in the American occupation zone and establish an Auto-Union entity there. Technical director Dr William Werner moved to Oldenburg in the north west to establish an Auto-Union entity in the British zone. French antipathy towards Germany meant no Auto-Union entity would be registered in the French zone.

The company’s leading figures had good reason to fear retribution by the Soviet authorities. Like most German companies, Auto-Union had exploited POW and slave labor during the war and a labor camp had even been established beside the Horch plant in Chemnitz. As Soviet forces advanced across eastern Germany and news of arrests and deportations spread, most of the company’s leading figures decided to flee west. On 8 May 1945 Soviet troops officially took possession of the city. https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/tu/pressestelle/aktuell/5911

The feared Soviet retribution was not long in coming. Chairman of the Auto-Union AG's supervisory board, Staatsbank President, Mr Nebelung was immediately arrested. Walter Schmolla, Hanns Schuler and Ludwig Hensel exercised executive powers in the interim. Schmolla would be arrested in May 1946, while Schuler and Hensel would both slip away to the west in the late 1940s.

Soviet engineering corps arrived in the summer of 1945 and undertook a comprehensive survey of all surviving German industrial facilities. Entire factories were catalogued, requisitioned, dismantled, and shipped east. So much industrial equipment was removed that the German recovery would be set back years. The undamaged Zschopau Motorradwerkes was stripped of its two motorcycle productions lines.  The RT-125 motorcycle production line was reestablished outside Moscow and the NZ350 motorcycle was set up at Izveka. DKW derived models would remain in production for decades. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2023/07/dkws-in-russian-service-izh-350.html

The few surviving Auto-Union Type C and D racers were shipped to Moscow for study, along with a large contingent of specialist engineers. The cars would be exhibited across Soviet Union as war trophies before being marked for scrap. At least two were ‘lost’ in storage only to reappear after the Fall of Communism in 1992.

Stalin’s son, Vassilli, would attempt to resurrect Auto-Union's Silver Arrow racing program in the 1950s with the help of the former Auto-Union Grand Prix engineering team. Unfortunately, after developing several racers, the team was disbanded.

Rebuilding from the ashes

Despite the stripping of the factories, the Soviets recognized there was value in preserving the central research and construction departments of the former Auto-Union, and established an ‘Autowelo’ (state-owned vehicle development enterprise) in Chemnitz. A new executive committee was formed of politically acceptable management, engineers and representatives from the newly re-established workers union. In 1948 Auto-Union AG would be officially de-registered from the Chemnitz commercial register.  

Given the state of the country and the immediate needs of reconstruction, the new executive committee proposed a truck and tractor program. It was hoped that the program could be started immediately by capitalizing on Auto-Union’s wartime truck and tractor projects, which were in pre-production stage in 1940 but were abandoned due to the war. Unfortunately, the loss of critical machine tools and materiel meant both projects took up more time and resources than the company had expected, delaying production for years. For details, see here: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/11/postwar-veb-horch-trucks-and-tractors.html

Despite the desperate state of affairs, Chemnitz was keen to return to car production. There were encouraging signs when on 19 March 1946, Captain Turpin of the Soviet Engineering Corps of the Occupation Government (SMAD) issued Auto-Union with a requisition order for plans and an example of the DKW F9 for study. As part of Auto-Union’s survival plan, technology, plans and machinery had been distributed around the country and only a single set of plans remained in the Auto-Union archive. However, the company did not have a functional car available. As bombing raids on Chemnitz increased during the last months of the war, the company's surviving F9s and streamlined endurance cars were moved to a vacant mill building in the little village of Saupersdorf, where it was hoped they would be safe from damage. Unfortunately, the mill was bombed during the last days of fighting and all the vehicles stored there were destroyed.


Technical Director William Werner’s personal DKW F9, the last preproduction prototype built, escaped this fate. Werner took possession of his car in November or December 1944 and had driven it to Berlin, where it was damaged in a bombing raid at the end of the year. In February 1945 the car was shipped back to Chemnitz for repair. As the car was not driveable, it was left behind when the other cars were relocated to Sauersdorf, thereby saving it from destruction. When Werner fled west in May 1945 he had the car transported to the Auto-Union service office in Hannover, where it was unfortunately spotted by a British engineering team who, like their Soviet counterparts, were searching for German technology. The car was seized and shipped to Britain where it disappeared.

For the history Werner’s car, check here: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-werner-dkw-f9.html

Auto-Union management began an intensive search for the several F9 cars that had been sold privately during the war. Word reached Chemnitz that one of the Saupersdorf cars had been salvaged from the mill and was at the Spandau karosseriewerkes, in the suburbs of Berlin. Spandau was under the management of the West German Auto-Union Gmbh so an agent was sent from Chemnitz to discretely see if they could requisition the car. The agent returned with the disheartening news that car was nothing more than a twisted pile of burnt steel.

The search eventually led to the recovery of Chassis number 7358, a very early prototype. The car was tidied up and presented to SMAD along with the surviving set of blueprints and engineering papers. The car received a Moscow registration number, Proba 13-10, and was shipped to the Soviet Union for study. IFA management hoped that the Soviet authorities would authorize the company to proceed with production, much as BMW had received approval to recommence production of their 327 sportscar in 1945. They were to be disappointed however as the car and all associated plans and documents disappeared.

The long-lost Soviet test car reappeared in 2016. The car had been substantially altered during its hard life. As in the case of the Werner car, the original two stroke motor (or its gearbox) failed and was irreparable, so the car had received a transplanted four cylinder, four stroke engine from a Skoda, driving the rear wheels via a transmission tunnel. It finally landed up in Estonia, where it was stored in poor condition, being little more than an empty shell. It was eventually put up for sale as an early IFA F9 but was recognized by DKW enthusiasts as prototype chassis 7358. It was purchased by Audi Tradition historian, Ralf Friese.  https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/a-second-dkw-f9-prototype-discovered.html

In September 1946 a meeting was held in Berlin between the Soviet authorities, the new German administration and key representatives of the auto industry, including former Auto Union AG board member, Dr Schuler. It was agreed that the former Auto Union would receive priority to build a modern, cheap car that could be exportable. German authorities had in mind an updated version of the DKW F8, but the Soviets wanted to restart production of the Wanderer W24, which they believed would be a better export proposition. It's quite clear from this discussion that the Soviets had made a thorough survey of the Wanderer's potential. The Wanderer's reliable four and six cylinder engines, designed by Ferdinand Porsche, had been put to many uses during the war, including its use in trucks and tractors. Given the lack of tools, designs and machinery, the Chemnitz team however, realised the Wanderer plan would be problematic and saw an opportunity to revive the F9 project. Of course, the same problems applied to the F9, but the two-stroke engine was a much less complicated from an engineering perspective and therefore had a better chance of success. Nevertheless, as an immediate priority IFA began to plan to restart manufacture of the prewar F8. This too had its own challenges, which have been detailed here: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/11/ifa-f8.html

Prewar DKW bodies were manufactured at the Spandau karosseriewerkes outside Berlin. Although deep inside the Soviet Zone, Spandau was just inside the boundary of West Berlin and Auto-Union in Ingolstadt claimed ownership of the plant, although this was disputed. Spandau would ultimately become a separate legal entity with a partial shareholding by IFA. Both IFA and DKW representatives investigated joint manufacture of F8 bodies at Spandau, but by April 1947 it was realized that satisfactory agreements would not be reached and the Spandau bodworks would be shut down as a manufacturing facility. IFA turned to the former Glaser bodyworks, now renamed Dresden Karosseriewerke, for the manufacture of wooden F8 bodies. Auto-Union ultimately decided not to proceed with the F8 but instead went on to develop the new steel-bodied F89P instead.

Auto-Union in Ingolstadt managed to obtain a smuggled set of plans for the F9 but did not have access to a complete car, which seriously hampered their efforts to recommence production. By a stroke of good fortune they managed to retrieve a set of body presses which enabled them to commence manufacturing the F9 body, which they installed over an F8 chassis and engine. It would take three years to reverse engineer the three cylinder engine. For the full story: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/dkw-f89p-new-meisterklasse.html

While the negotiations at Spandau did not achieve IFA’s desired outcome, it did result in one piece of good fortune. An incomplete set of F9 body drawings was uncovered and Spandau agreed to send a copy to Chemnitz in exchange for a fee. When the tracings arrived in Chemnitz they were found to be both incomplete and inaccurate so Albert Locke, who had worked on the original F9 project, revised and updated the body drawings from memory. [ed - were these perhaps copies of the documents referenced in the BIOS Final Report 21 on the German Motor Car Industry, Foreign Documents (Board of Trade, German Division, Technical Information and Documents FD No. 5180/47 Auto Union AG. Berlin-Spandau. Drawings of light car chassis with three cylinder two stroke engine (1938/41)?].

There were no surviving plans for the F9 chassis so design engineer Walter Haustein, who had played a major role in the development of the Front car in 1932, worked backwards from an F8 chassis. Again, working from memory, he adjusted the F8 chassis design to accommodate for the improved suspension and - importantly - widened the forward frame to provide better access for the engine and gearbox. When DKW had first mounted the new triple engine into the chassis of an F8 for trials, it was noted that the clearances between the engine, gearbox and chassis members was extremely limited, making it difficult to work on the engine and gearbox in the car. With specialist tools and an engine lift it took three men four hours to remove an engine. Haustein and Locke resolved this problem by ensuring that clearances around the engine bay were improved, widening the front by 60cm and raising the bonnet by 30cms. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2021/09/1948-ifa-f9-replica-project-part-three.html

The engine was equally problematic as officially there were no surviving engine plans or test engines in the company's possession, all the spare test engines having been scrapped during the war or otherwise lost. However, in late 1945, engineers Walter Bergmann and Helmut Richter, who had worked in the Auto Union engine design bureau before the war, had come forward to the new management committee with a lead on the engine parts. When, towards the end of the war, the decision was made to scrap the unused test engines, Bergmann and Richter had smuggled engine parts from the scrap pile and hidden them away for the future. They agreed to retrieve the parts from their hiding place and begin rebuilding the engine. This work had to be done in secret as it was not approved by the occupation authorities at this time.

Then, in January 1948, after searching through the records, the Chemnitz team discovered that a three-cylinder engine was still in the possession of the exhaust specialist, Eberspacher of Esslingen. This was a very early pre-production engine that had been loaned to the exhaust company for testing purposes. IFA wrote to Eberspacher claiming the engine as their property and sought its return. The engine repatriation case dragged on for several months according to management meeting minutes and was ultimately unsuccessful. Eberspacher claimed the engine had ‘disappeared’, but it is more likely it was retrieved by Auto-Union in lngolstadt, from which they would develop their 3=6 engine. For the story of how we know DKW used a prewar test engine to reverse engineer their engine, see the story of the DKW F89P: https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2017/06/dkw-f89p-new-meisterklasse.html 

Fortunately, by this time, Bergmann and Richter had not only managed to reconstruct a DKW F9 engine from recovered parts, but had also completely revised its design to standardise and simplify its construction by symetrically aligning its cylinders, which were slightly offset in the original DKW. This simplification was very important for IFA as they were virtually starting from scratch with barely any machine tools in their possession and allowed the IFA engine to use standardized pistons in each cylinder.

Further searching through the vast stockpiles of spare parts scattered around the Saxon plants turned up several sets of spare body panels that had been pressed by Baur Karosserie in Stuttgart during the F9's development phase. Approval from the Minister of Industry and Deputy Chairman of the German Economic Commission Fritz Selbmann was obtained to build a presentable vehicle from the assorted parts. According to a document dated 19 February 1948, the car was presented to the Soviet military administration in Berlin-Karlshorst and tested by General Olechnowitsch. The car was subsequently exhibited at the Leipzig trade fair where series production was announced for the following year. All in all, four exhibition cars were assembled from prewar spare parts.

The F9 at Leipzig in 1948. The car is still described as a DKW-IFA at this time. Observers from Auto-Union in Ingolstadt were horrified by the news that their rival Chemnitz office had managed to restart sedan production, unaware that car was actually a 1940 pre-production car.

Now that series production had been approved officially, the problems with supply of specialized parts became critical.Almost all specialist parts, such as carburetors, electrical components, bearings, etc, were situated in the western zone. For political reasons, ongoing parts supply from the west was discounted. By 1950, the political situation between east and west Germany had become fraught and inter-zone trade stopped. Before locally sourced and manufactured parts could even commence, designs, drawings and manufacturing equipment for those parts would need to be developed. In some cases, even the raw materials, such as the plastic molding compound for the ignition coil housing and fuse box, needed to be developed from scratch. Numerous documents and reports in the Saxon State Archives provide information about the difficulties. For example, there was no effective fuel pump in East Germany at the time so IFA abandoned the rear mounted fuel tank and placed the tank in the engine bay, in the manner of the prewar F8 series. In 1949, six pre-series vehicles were finally on the road. The experience gained from these vehicles allowed series production of the F9 finally begin in 1950.


As all the former Auto-Union factories had been stripped of machinery, there was a question of where the new car would be built. DKW had planned to set up an ‘end to end’ F9 production line in the halls of the former Presto works, which had become the former Auto-Union's Chemnitz head office in 1936. In the end, IFA opted the continue the old Auto-Union practice of production across dispersed sites. The engines were initially built at the VEB Barkaswerkes, car bodies were manufactured in the Horch plant in Chemnitz and and final vehicle assembly was carried out in the former Audi plant.

Presto were a motorcycle and machinery manufacturer in Chemnitz which went out of business in 1935. Auto-Union purchased the factory and offices as its head office. As part of Auto-Union's long-term plan to rationalize its distributed and dysfunctional production facilities, the company planned to centralize the manufacture of all components and assembly of the new F9 in the newly refurbished and modernized factory by 1941. The war however would prevent this plan coming to fruition. In 1945 the Soviets stripped the site of all machinery and in 1953 the vacant building was transformed into a public hospital until the early 2000s. After more than a decade derelict, the heritage listed building was purchased by a development company which plans to restore and repurpose it. Their plan includes an automotive and industrial museum onsite.


Production of the first series of F9 was hampered by supply and quality issues. By December 1949 only 260 examples of the coveted new cars had been built, and production would remain only in the hundreds per annum for the following two years. During this time employees were intensively conducting road tests in the various F9 cars to provide feedback on improvements to the vehicle, and address the breakdowns caused by poor quality materials. The reports of the test drivers show that there were multiple suspension failures because the steel used in the leaf spring suspension was of poor quality and broke under stress. Neumatic shock absorbers had equally high failure rates.

All brake parts proved problematic. Valves in the main brake cylinders did not function, wheel brake cylinders leaked, and brake linings crumbled, requiring the test cars to be returned to the brake plant in Limbach-Oberfrohna for a complete rebuild. Eventually aluminum brake drums with cast-in cast iron treads were introduced at the beginning of 1951. There were also many complaints about leaking oil seals on the wheel and gearbox bearings.

The electrical system of the vehicles was also a source of problems, leaving vehicles stranded at the side of the road. Dynastarts failed prematurely as they used the wrong copper alloys or too soft carbon brushes. Poor placement of the ignition system and inadequate waterproofing led to electrical failure and the ignition cable was made of unsuitable material which softened in the rain. At the end of 1950, after making numerous changes to all the electrical components, the lighting and electrical system was extensively tested with three test cars simultaneously, with all electrical systems remaining switched on for hundreds of kilometres. These trials proved successful.

In 1952, a radio was trialed in the F9 test cars, but these too proved not to be ready for series production! https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2022/12/1954-das-magazin-volume-three-this-year.html

The GDR’s need for hard currency exports led IFA to export both the F8 and F9. As IFA were able to return to passenger car production before Auto-Union in Ingolstadt, IFA was able to reconnect with the overseas DKW sale network, much to Auto-Union’s chagrin. F9s were sold in France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. Problems of build quality, especially the electrics were a perennial complaint. https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2023/03/finnish-road-test-of-ifa-f9-december.html

At the beginning of 1953, the East German motoring collective, VEB, made the far-reaching decision to relocate F9 production from IFA Zwickau and Chemnitz to EMW Eisenach. Plant management at Zwickau and Chemnitz protested vociferously. The head of the Audi plant, Hans Migotsch, wrote a letter to the then SED general secretary Walter Ulbricht on 27 November 1952, which was also signed SED party secretary Muller. Despite the objectivity articulated concerns expressed in the letter, both signatories were immediately fired. The fact that a very committed specialist and a leading party member of the GDR were ‘sent to the wilderness’ smothered further dissent.

For a report on the slow production of cars at Chemnitz, check out the 1952 KFZ Issue 9 - https://dkwautounionproject.blogspot.com/2020/12/1952-kraftfahrzeug-technik-vol-9.html

Zwickau were not alone in their reservations as this decision nullified the plans of the former BMW workers in Eisenach to develop a modern mid-range car as the successor to the EMW 340. EMW, were accustomed to building large, high quality cars powered by four-stroke engines and regarded the F9 as a poor quality, budget car, far below their standards. However, EMW managements concerns were of no more weight than those of IFA.

At Eisenach the F9 was re-designated the EMW model 309. The Eisenach team quickly recognized there were considerable development opportunities with the F9. The engine was re-worked and its performance improved considerably. In the spring of 1954, a rally department was even created for the F9 in the Eisenach racing collective. The engines these vehicles used were tuned for rally performance.

EMW made numerous other changes which improved the car. The exhaust system was improved, delivering more power and reducing exhaust noise. The split front window was replaced with a single piece windscreen. The small, split rear window was also enlarged. A petrol pump was installed allowing the petrol tank to be moved to the trunk as originally intended in 1940. The walking stick gear shift that emerged through the dashboard was replaced by a column shift and internal fittings were improved.

Bringing the manufacture of the F9 into a single production facility significantly improved build efficiency. IFA, with its production spread across three sites, had only been able to turn out 1880 cars in three years of production. EMW would produce more than 39,000 cars over the same period.

IFA had manufactured the F9 in two styles, a limousine (1627 examples) and a four-seat cabriolet (253 examples). Eisenach created nine different body styles for the car, including coupe, limousine, cabriolet, universal, wood panel van, sun-roof model, utility, delivery van and kubelwagen for police use. This variety exceeded that of Auto-Union in Ingolstadt and the West German company viewed developments at Eisenach with some alarm. To block exports of the F9 to western markets, Auto-Union GmbH, claimed patent rights on the body design of the F9, resulting in many years of litigation between East and West.

Designer of the original F9 body, Albert Locke, had begun work on pontoon bodywork for the F9 in 1948 and the Eisenach team continued this work. In 1955 the model 311 was created, which would become better known as the Wartburg. The shift away from the prewar F9 body styling would ultimately put an end to the litigation with Auto-Union. The Wartburg would also be developed into numerous body variants and would for ten years be a very popular seller in the GDR, as well as a successful export.

In 1962 the Wartburg would receive an upgraded 992cc engine and in 1966 a completely redesigned and modernized body. This later model was designated the Wartburg 353.

In the 1980s it was decided at the highest level that no new vehicles would be constructed in the GDR, but rather that the existing models would be progressively modernized. A contract with Volkswagen was formalized to supply VW engines to replace the long outdated two-stroke engines used in the Wartburg and Trabant. This resulted in the Wartburg 1.3, powered by a Volkswagen 1.3L four-stroke engine. The Wartburg 1.3 remained in production until 1991. With the demise of the Wartburg 1.3, the long DKW heritage of the F9 project came to an end.

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